‘I totally love Erin Ijesha Waterfalls’ – Debbie of Waka With Debbie

Jumia Travel Nigeria had an interview with Debbie Egwuogu, the founder of Waka With Debbie, on her traveling experience in Nigeria and why she is so passionate about assisting people to plan their tours. Below are the excerpts of the interview. Enjoy!

Tell us a bit about yourself.

My name is Debbie Egwuogu, a graduate of English Literature from Lagos State University, 3 time scholarship recipient of the prestigious Enterprise Development Center of the Pan-Atlantic University. I am also the founder of an NGO that caters to the needs of public school students in my community. I’m a serial entrepreneur with vested business interests in Event planning, Street food Catering and Tourism.

How and when did you develop an interest for traveling?

I’ve always loved to travel, but hardly undertaken any personal travel, all travels I have done thus far has been work related. However, In 2016, I decided to be more deliberate, I wanted to see more of Nigeria. For me, it wasn’t about going to the UK or the US, I wanted to see home, I wanted to know and explore home. So, me and two of my friends decided to go and see the historical places of the west of Nigeria. From there, the desire soared, now it’s a need to see and explore the entire African continent and sell the beautiful, unpopular and uncelebrated side of it.

You described yourself as a ‘tour planner’, we would like you to shed more light on that.

Waka With Debbie is a full tour and travel agency with special interest in Nigerian and African tourism. Apart from packaging travel and tours for groups and individuals, we also plan our own monthly “Waka”. We intricately put together our tours. For us it is not just an ‘up and go’ thing. We put heart into it, we want people to make friends on our tours, get business connects, etc. So we plan strategic games, our menu too is one that will get our Waka buddies very excited. On our June Waka, we have something very exciting on our menu.

My most memorable trip for now is ERIN IJESHA WATERFALLS in Osun State, I totally love that place. I still cannot explain why. So I guess I need to keep visiting until I can explain it. But, the wonder of the 7 waterfalls, is my number one intrigue.

What thrills you the most about traveling to a new destination entirely?

What I’m going to be eating there. I never travel with any Nigerian food, l like to experience the food of a new place. I personally see it as one key way to acculturate.

What are the top 5 places in Nigeria that you would recommend to a foreigner.

What is your preferred method of traveling? (solo or with a travel buddy? Please explain)

Most definitely with a Waka Buddy. I don’t enjoy traveling alone. I need “gist partners”, we need to take pictures of each other and capture moments. My standard group is a group of 4.

What are the 5 things you can’t do without while traveling.

My Backpack (that must have all my essentials)

My Sunhat

My Sunglasses

A good pair of jeans.

My travel sneakers.

How do you manage your finances while traveling?

That’s one of the reasons I travel with a group, finances are split and it makes it way easier. I also do a lot of research about where I’m going to, so I can manage my funds well.

What advice do you have for people who want to travel for fun but can’t afford it?

SAVE! SAVE!! SAVE!!!

Hook up with a tour planner who has an Esusu Plan attached to her tour packages. Waka With Debbie does that, that’s why we put out our itinerary, so people can decided where they want to Waka with Us to and save towards it.